2 Rescued After Trench Collapse

DETROIT (WWJ) – Detroit fire rescue crews worked for more than two hours Wednesday to free a man from a trench that he and another man had dug behind a home on Cruse Street, near Puritan and Schaefer.

Reporting from the scene on the city’s west side., WWJ Newsradio 950’s Pat Sweeting said two men were working on the plumbing when the trench collapsed on them.

One man was quickly freed, but rescue crews had to put some time in to rescue the second.

“He was initially buried up to his neck,” Sweeting, Wednesday afternoon. “The ladder from one of the trucks has been lowered to the area to, I guess, help them to secure the man so that he doesn’t sink any deeper.”

Neighbor Michael Loston arrived home from a bike ride when the rescue effort was just beginning.

“So, I parked the bike and they ran up to me like, ‘You got a shovel or rake or anything, buckets, and I was like ‘Yes I’ve got shovel’,” Loston said. “They grabbed that and, you know what I’m saying, started digging the guy up … got the first guy up and when I went in the alley and seen it … they had the guy laying down on the ground for about 5 minutes before they got him on the stretcher.”

The second man was out by 4:30 p.m. Both were being checked out by paramedics but were expected to be OK.